Detroit Tigers special game to benefit the Detroit Goodfellows

Fans can help one of Detroit's most historic charitable causes

Local 4's Paul Gross with Detroit Tigers mascot Paws. (WDIV)

DETROIT – If you could buy a ticket for a Tigers game and, at the same time, help one of Detroit’s most historic and cherished charitable causes, would you? Of course you would, and this is a no-brainer.

The Detroit Tigers has always been a very philanthropic organization, and the club is helping out the Detroit Goodfellows in a big way at it’s Friday, May 11, game against the Seattle Mariners. All you have to do is buy the special ticket package for this game, and the Tigers will donate $5 from every ticket sold to the Goodfellows. You can choose from upper box infield, mezzanine, upper reserved infield, upper grandstand or lower baseline box tickets.

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But wait, there’s more. If you buy the special Goodfellows ticket, you also receive an exclusive long sleeve Detroit Tigers shirt.

These shirts aren’t “cheapies”." They’re 100 percent cotton and will hold up for a long time.

As I said above, this is a no-brainer. But remember that to get the special shirt and have $5 of your ticket price go to the Goodfellows, you must buy the special ticket, and they are not available at the Comerica Park Box Office windows, you have to buy them at the special Detroit Tigers -- Goodfellows webpage: www.tigers.com/Goodfellows. If you want to bring a group of fifteen or more, then you need to contact Matt Andrus at Matt.Andrus@tigers.com.

Most of you know how passionate I am about the Goodfellows, you see me selling papers on the Monday after Thanksgiving every year to help raise money so that we can provide huge holiday gift packages to the 34,000 poorest children in Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Harper Woods and River Rouge.

The Goodfellows started selling papers way back in 1914, and my wife’s grandfather, Paul Camiener, was one of the earliest Goodfellows, I am carrying on the family tradition. There’s a popular saying these days that says to “pay it forward”.

In my case, I’m actually “paying it backwards” through my work with the Goodfellows. You see, a few years after I joined the organization and started selling papers, I casually mentioned it to my mother. She then shocked me when she said that she received those Goodfellow packages when she was a kid. Her father, my grandfather, died when she was seven years old, and the family was very poor.

Not only did she receive that much-anticipated big box when the holidays approached, but the Goodfellows program also sent her to camp in the summer (which continues to this day, along with a dental care program, and providing free shoes to poor kids that need them). This special organization sure had a big impact on my mother’s childhood, and that impact continues today with our area’s current group of underprivileged children.

I hope you’ll consider attending the Tigers’ May 11th game and buying the special Goodfellows ticket. You never know whose life you’ll make such a difference in. If you want to learn more about the Goodfellows (or join the organization, or make a donation), go to www.DetroitGoodfellows.org.